FIGHTING INTENSIFIES ON ROAD TO DAMASCUS AIRPORT

Conditions in Syrian capital worsen as shortages take hold

Syrian warplanes bombed rebel areas near Damascus on Thursday as President Bashar Assad’s troops battled opposition fighters for control of the road linking the capital to the country’s largest airport.

Assad’s forces are trying drive out rebels who have established enclaves in the suburbs. While the government has lost control of large swaths of territory in the country’s north and east, including parts of the northern city of Aleppo, the capital remains tightly secured.

Conditions in the city have worsened however, with prices for basic goods rising and fuel in short supply. U.S. officials said Thursday they believe Assad’s sister and mother have left the country, suggesting that hardship has reached even the leadership’s families.

As the fighting continued, France’s foreign minister suggested that Assad’s fall was not imminent — a stark admission by a country that has been one of the most ardent supporters of the Syrian rebels.

Speaking in Paris, Laurent Fabius told reporters: “The solution that we hoped for — that is to say, Bashar’s fall, the rise of the opposition to power — there are no recent signs that are as positive as that.”

Meanwhile the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported bomb attacks and clashes in a number of Damascus suburbs, saying at least 13 people were killed. The group, which relies on a network of contacts inside Syria, said fighter jets bombed the southwestern suburbs of Daraya and Moadamiyeh, where rebels have been fighting regime forces for weeks.

Because of its strategic location near a military airport, Syrian troops have been pounding rebel positions in Daraya for weeks.

The observatory also reported heavy fighting near Damascus International Airport and said the regime was shelling the town of Aqraba along the airport road.

Troops have also been battling rebels in the oil-rich province of al-Hasaka in the country’s northeast.